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INDIAN OFFICE: 
WEONGS DOING 

AND 

REFORMS NEEDED r" 



Philadelphia, January 8, 1874. 

To His Excellency, Ulysses S. Grant : 

My Bear Sir : — Allow me to recall to your mind our 
first interview, a few days after your inauguration, when 
I was acting as chairman of a committtee comprising J udge 
Strong, Hon. Eli K. Price, Mr. George H. Stuart, and others. 
We were drawn to you by the following paragraph in your 
inaugural address : 

" The proper treatment of the original occupants of this 
land, the Indians, is one deserving of careful study. I will 
favor any course towards them which tends to their civiliza- 
tion, Christianization, and ultimate citizenship." 

To aid you in promoting this praiseworthy object, we 
tendered our co-operation and that of the large body of 
citizens whom we represented. In the course of our friendly 
discussion, it was admitted that frauds in the Indian Office 
and Service had become chronic and difficult of cure. We 
suggested as a remedial measure, the appointment by you, 
after procuring the authority of Congress, of a small board 
of unpaid commissioners, men of tried integrity, to have 
joint control with the Secretary of the Interior, over all 
appropriations for Indian service, and thus to lift this ser- 




vice aoove political influences and other demoralizing ten- 
dencies. 

"You, and the then Secretary of the Interior, cordially 
assented to this proposal, and Secretary Cox drafted the first 
law that was enacted, thus: " The Board of Commissioners 
is to exercise joint control with the Interior Department 
over the disbursement of appropriations, &c." 

You were pleased to appoint me on that Indian Commis- 
sion, and my colleagues elected me their chairman. Owing 
to influences from without and from within the department, 
the sources of which were carefully concealed from that 
most excellent Secretary of the Interior, instead of giving 
the Board the joint control indicated in the Act of Congress, 
its powers were limited to that of a mere council of advice. 
Having a more thorough knowledge than some of my col- 
leagues of the political power of the Indian Ring, and of 
the deep-seated malady in the Indian Office, and being un- 
willing to assume responsibilities without any power of con- 
trol, I peremptorily resigned my commission, at the same 
time pledging myself to you that I would serve the cause as 
a private citizen with equal zeal and without cost of any 
kind to the Government. The propriety of my course be- 
came manifest in 1871, when the Indian Office was investi- 
gated by a Congressional Committee, and at this time it is, 
in my judgment, still more manifest. 

Before I refer to the present lamentable condition of the 
Indian Office, allow me to thank you with all sincerity for 
your invariable kindness to me during the five years in 
which I have, at much cost of time and money, co-operated 
with you in your noble effort to save the remnant of our 
American Indians, and thereby to remove a fearful stigma 
from the nation. We all owe you a debt of gratitude for 
taking Indian Agencies from those who ordinarily were 
using them as party spoils, and for transferring them to the 
care of religious bodies, who expend hundreds of thousands 
of dollars annually in successful efforts to civilize and Chris- 
tianize Indians. Again, when under authority of law you 




s 



3 

deprived the Governors of Territories of their ex-officio right 
to the superintendency of Indian affairs, you eradicated one 
of the most prolific sources of the evils from which the In- 
dian Service in our Territories and new States is slowly re- 
covering. As you have been fully sustained in these and 
other heroic acts, and as your Indian policy is no longer ex- 
perimental, the present condition of the Indian Office should 
not create any despondency, for I feel sure that Congress and 
the people will sustain you in applying a thorough remedy- 

At our recent appointed interview, I felt constrained to 
inform you that since the last letting of contracts for sup- 
plies, a powerful Indian Ring, comprising men whom I 
named to you, had been formed, and that in some unaccount- 
able way it had acquired such an influence in the Interior 
Department that, if unchecked, it would undermine your 
merciful policy by destroying the confidence of Congress, 
and thus hindering the appropriations necessary to promote 
Indian civilization. As you will remember, I further said 
that my belief in the integrity of the Secretary of the In- 
terior had not been impaired, and that having thoroughly 
cordial relations with him, I desired to exert every persuasive 
influence before invoking your aid. As these efforts have 
failed to procure the reforms in the Indian Office necessary 
to protect the Indian and the Government. I now present 
the case to you in an open letter, as I do not feel free to con- 
fer with you privately about the duties of a Cabinet officer / 

I notified Mr. Delano, as a friend, that he was surrounded 
by influences that were operating adversely to the interests 
of the Government and the Indian. He insisted upon my 
preferring specific charges against his officers, instead of 
looking into the office of the Second Auditor, and also into 
the Returns Office himself. He could in the latter office 
have seen that the law was constantly violated by keeping 
contracts from public observation, although there is a penalty 
of imprisonment if each contract is not speedily recorded in 
that office, where it is to be kept open for public inspection. 
The Secretary of the Interior was, until I recently advised 



him, kept in ignorance of a contract made by Agent Smith, 
now the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, on the 8th day of 
November, 1872, for the illegal and, as I believe, the other- 
wise wrongful sale of immense bodies of pine timber, without 
the knowledge of some of the Indians to whom it belongs, 
and against the openly expressed wishes of other bands who 
own a portion of it. The commissioners for investigating 
half-breed scrip, Agent Smith and Judge Jones, one of the 
present examining commissioners, had previously reported 
timber, said to be far less valuable than this, to be worth 
82-50 to 88 a thousand, and yet this contract was made at 
81.15 a thousand, without advertising, or in any other way 
inviting competition. A portion of this timber had been 
previously sold by Agent Smith to Clark at §1.35 per thou- 
sand, and Clark testifies that he was willing to give that 
price for the whole, but Agent Smith said that he could not 
sell it. Agent Smith subsequently notified Clark that the 
contract he had entered into with him was void, because the 
Indians at Oak Point had determined not to sell their pine 
timber. Subsequently this timber, with large bodies of tim- 
ber belonging to other Indians who had not been consulted, 
was sold to A. H. Wilder at §1.15, as before referred to. 

It is true that this contract received the approval of that 
most honorable gentleman, General F. A. AValker, the then 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs. His explanation is given 
in the following extracts from letters written by him to me, 
dated December 5 and 18, and to General B. E. Cowen, 
Assistant Secretary of the Interior, dated Xovember 13, 
1873. General Walker sent a copy of the latter letter to me, 
from which it appears that Geueral Cowen was a party to 
the negotiation. 

(December 5.) With reference to the specific matter of 
your inquiry, I would say that I do not remember ever to 
have heard of the refusal of the Indians at Oak Point to 
allow the Clark contract to be consummated until I learned 
it from you at our interview at the Ebbitt House, on Satur- 
day last. If it was ever reported to the office, it either never 



5 



reached my eye, or I was inexcusably heedless in respect to 
it, for I cannot recall the circumstance." 

(December 18.) " Agent Smith was thoroughly cognizant 
of the situation, yet he recommended the sale of the timber, 
and approved the terms of sale in detail and as a whole." 

November 13, to General Cowen. — " Mr. Smith, then 
agent for these Indians, now Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 
being at the time in Washington, represented to the office 
in very strong terms the inadequacy of the provision that 
would be effected by the sale of the timber first offered" [to 
Wilder, being the same timber that had been sold by con- 
tract to Clark] " and the necessity of doing something more 
to relieve the Leech Lake Indians from the miserable con- 
dition of vagabondage and almost of starvation in which 
they were." " In the matter of a fair price for the whole 
body of the timber I had a reasonable reference to the judg- 
ment of Agent Smith, who stated that he was fully conver- 
sant with this location, and deemed the sum named to be 
reasonable and adequate." " The question submitted by 
Agent Smith seemed in effect to be whether the Indians 
should be permitted to starve in possession of valuable prop- 
erty which they could not use, or whether that property 
should be put into a form which would allow them to receive 
their own self-support." "Certain I am that it was this 
view of the case, as presented by Mr. Smith, which deter- 
mined me to recommend that the department entertain Mr. 
Wilder's proposition for the entire body of the Leech Lake 
timber, and accept the same on two conditions — first, that 
a fair price could be obtained for the whole; second, that 
Mr. Wilder would make payment in advance of a considera- 
ble sum (I think $50,000 was the sum mentioned) to enable 
the agricultural improvements to be commenced with the 
opening of spring. Upon the question in this form the con- 
sultation between you, Mr. Smith, and myself, was free and 
informal." " We are all responsible, therefore, each in his 
own place and degree ; you and I for giving undue weight 
to the representations of the agent, the agent for making 



6 



representations which, if false, he must have known to he 
false." " The amount which Mr. Wilder was required to 
deposit in advance to the order of the Indian Office, and the 
substantial bonds required from him for the proper comple- 
tion of his contract, &c." If Mr. Wilder paid the $50,000 
of advance money, it is certain that no part of it ever reached 
the United States Treasury, or that not one dollar of it 
was expended for the relief of these poor, perishing Pillager 
Chippewas. General Walker, who still has confidence in 
the good intentions of Agent Smith, was evidently hastened 
into an approval of the contract without the knowledge 
that the rightful owners of part of the timber had refused 
to let it be sold ; without the knowledge that it had not been 
advertised, or the sale open to fair competition, and under 
the belief that Indians, turbulent through starvation, yet 
desiring implements of husbandry and seeds, would be re- 
lieved in the early spring. By reference to the report of 
Gren. Terry, you will learn that no implements of husbandry 
or seeds were sent to these Indians, and that, consequently, 
they are disheartened and almost starving. Even the §10,000 
which was to have been paid under the terms of the contract 
on the 1st day of May, was not received into the Treasury 
until after the exposure of this stupendous iniquity. If the 
whole truth in relation to this and other similar transactions 
in that region is brought to light, I fear that the band of 
white pillagers will outnumber their red brethren of that 
name. Secretary Delano appointed four commissioners to 
examine this and other alleged irregularities of Agent Smith, 
and they, supposing that they had power to subpoena wit- 
nesses, summoned me before them at St. Paul, Minnesota. I 
had not thought of preferring charges against Agent Smith 
until after the receipt of that summons, when, being un- 
able to attend in person, I prepared charges at the request 
of Secretary Delano. I append a paper from my attorneys, 
who withheld the copy of my charges that I had sent to 
them, because, as they say, in the midst of a community 
personally interested in these -lucrative contracts, an exami- 



7 



nation by a commission without power to compel the attend- 
ance of witnesses "can result in little more than a farce." 
After I heard that, instead of handing to my attorneys the 
copy of my letter that I had enclosed to the commissioners, 
they were going through the form of an investigation, I tele- 
graphed them that Inspector Daniels, who was present in St. 
Paul, at the request of the Secretary of the Interior, could 
invoke the aid of the Federal court, and thus enforce the 
attendance of witnesses. 

From the reply of the commissioners I infer that they are 
quite content with the examination of parties to the con- 
tract and others like-minded, allowing the presence of an 
attorney for the accused, without having any one present to 
conduct the prosecution. The verdict of such examiners can 
have little influence upon the mind of any disinterested 
person. I stand ready to verify before a competent tribunal 
every charge that I made against Agent Smith, or openly to 
retract them, and also to add numerous charges against his 

' CD O 

conduct as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, such as the 
following : 

Without consulting the Board of Indian Commissioners 
in accordance with a specific law of Congress, and without 
advertising, Commissioner Smith made extensive private 
contracts with A. II. "Wilder and others, for supplies and 
for freight, and substituted corn for contract flour, and 
barreled pork for contract bacon. Some of the vouchers 
approved by Commissioner Smith for the expenses of Indians 
visiting Washington, give evidence of fraud, and surely 
there was great extravagance in the allowance of forty-five 
dollars per trip to a clerk in the Indian Office for railroad 
fares from New York to Washington and back, each time 
he spent Sundays with his family; also, six dollars a day for 
expenses, in addition to his regular salary. These are mere 
illustrations that chance to be before me at the moment, 
and although trifling in amount, yet they give indications 
of the general management of the office. I do not claim 
that the Secretary of the Interior is accountable for all these 



8 



irregularities, as vouchers are often passed in spite of his 
remonstrances. Thus, there had been a persistent attempt 
for a long time to foist, upon the department a quack nostrum 
of doubtful morality. Commissioner Smith purchased it to 
the extent of five thousand dollars, and having directed that 
it should be charged to the appropriation for vaccine virus, 
it was for this cause brought to the notice of the Secretary 
of the Interior, and by him disallowed, as on former occa- 
sions. It was, however subsequently approved in the Sec- 
retary's office, and charged to other appropriations. This 
serves as an illustration of my statement that the Secretary 
of the Interior should not be made responsible for all the 
acts of those under him. I will, however, refer to acts for 
which he is directly responsible. When the Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Interior visited Indian agencies, he was allowed, 
in addition to all his expenses, eight dollars a day, whilst 
receiving salary as a Government officer. 

This violation of the law, although unimportant in amount, 
is ruinous to the morality of the department, as it practically 
sanctions still greater irregularities by others who hold in- 
ferior offices. 

The Board of Indian Commissioners will assemble in 
Washington about the middle of this month, and from them 
you can learn the particulars of their recent efforts to check 
irregular and fraudulent practices, and their want of success 
in these eflbrts. Since the last public letting of contracts 
for supplies, the contractors have combined, and seem to 
possess greater practical influence in the Interior Depart- 
ment than the Board of Indian Commissioners. Vouchers, 
I learn, to the extent of nearly half a million of dollars, were 
rejected by the Board of Indian Commissioners, under the 
belief that they were fraudulent, illegal, or irregular, and yet 
most of these have been paid by order of the Secretary of the 
Interior. A beef contractor, whose fraudulent practices are 
on record in the Interior Department, and whose bids were 
consequently rejected by the Board of Indian Commissioners, 
was allowed to sub-let the contracts for the last fiscal year. 



1) 



To guard against the recurrence of this glaring wrong, the 
Board of Indian Commissioners caused the following para- 
graph to be inserted in the proposals for supplies for the 
current fiscal year : " No contract, or part thereof, will be 
permitted to be assigned or filled by other parties, without 
the written consent of the Secretary of the Interior." 

I was invited to be present at the opening of these bids, 
and was privy to the fact that the Board of Indian Com- 
missioners endeavored to avoid the possibility of the recur- 
rence of the wrongs of the previous year. They divided the 
contract for cattle between residents in Minnesota, in 
Nebraska, and in Kansas, and yet the same objectionable 
contractor has been permitted to purchase one or more of 
the shares, and to supply the cattle for the other contractor 
or contractors, with the full knowledge of the Interior 
Department. When awarding contracts for cattle and for 
freight, we were all surprised at the urgency of General 
Cowan, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, and of Indian 
Commissioner Smith, that large contracts should be given 
to A. II. Wilder, of Minnesota. The Commissioners tele- 
graphed to Minnesota, and found his mercantile standing 
good, but they were left in ignorance of the fact that five 
months before that time the somewhat notorious contract 
for pine timber had been concluded by Mr. Smith, and ap- 
proved by General Cowan, Acting Secretary of the Interior, 
without having been reported to Secretary Delano, as he 
testifies. Had this fact been known, I am satisfied that the 
Board of Indian Commissioners would not have approved 
the contract with Wilder, and certainly they would not have 
removed the objections urged against Agent Smith in the 
Senate, when his name was brought before it for confirma- 
tion as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 

At your request, the Board of Indian Commissioners will 
undoubtedly report the extent of purchases and contracts 
for supplies and for freight made without conference with 
them, and of vouchers paid without having been sub- 
mitted to them, in accordance with a law of Congress, well 



10 



known to the Secretary of the Interior and the Commssioner 
of Indian Affairs. 

I do not ask your help in cancelling the illegal and the 
fraudulent contracts for pine timber. The Secretary of the 
Interior has already suspended action under them, and if 
neither he nor Congress see fit to annul these contracts, the 
rights of the Indians can be sufficiently protected by the 
courts in Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

I do respectfully but earnestly ask your aid and that of 
Congress in producing such a reform in the Indian Office as 
will protect the interests of the Indian and of the Govern- 
ment, and insure the continuance of the humane policy that 
has, from my own observation, been more successful than 
even the best friends of the Indian dared to hope for. 

Congress is, to a certain degree, responsible for a part of 
the wrong. A salary of three thousand dollars a year is en- 
tirely inadequate to secure all the time of an intelligent and 
competent Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Salaries vary- 
ing from six to ten thousand dollars and upwards are paid 
in our insurance companies and banks to officers of less 
capacity than is required properly to manage the Indian 
Office. 

A salary of twenty-five hundred dollars a year to each 
Indian Agent would be true economy. In some cases the 
religious bodies pay the United States Indian Agent a salary 
in addition to the fifteen hundred dollars received from the 
Government, because they find that sum wholly inadequate 
ro secure honest men with sufficient capacity for that office. 
This divided responsibility should be avoided, and it is 
rather humiliating to the Government to have charitable 
associations eke out the salaries of its officers, and wholly 
irregular for Government Agents to have two paymasters. 
"^Vhen agents purchased the office with money or political 
service, and were expected to enrich themselves at the ex- 
pense of the Indians, the salary was a small portion of the 
income. Xow they are instantly removed from office if 
known to yield to temptations that still have great power 
through long usage. 



11 



Agents with families, living on $1,500 a-year, where food 
is costly, and obliged to entertain strangers because of the 
absence of other houses, and to assist sick and poor Indians, 
are of necessity straitened. Poverty and debt decrease 
respect for the Government, and often weaken moral prin- 
ciples. At such a juncture men who had withstood other 
temptations have yielded to the persuasive overtures of 
contractors and speculators in pine timber. The power of 
these temptations is frequently increased . by an alleged or 
real influence in the Interior Department. Sometimes the 
agent, when entering upon his duties, finds his reservation 
under the control of contractors, and, before he becomes 
aware of it, he has appended his signature to vouchers cer- 
tified to by his employes. The discovery of this has, in 
several cases, demoralized the agent and placed him under 
the control of the experienced employe. That contractors 
known to be adepts in this form of villainy have influence 
in the Interior Department is an undeniable fact, causing 
much anxiety to some of the best friends of Indian civili- 
zation. 

If the whole Indian service could be placed under the 
entire control of the Society of Friends, the many forms of 
demoralization, now so baleful in their influence, could be 
checked, Indian civilization promoted, and I do believe a 
million of dollars a-year saved by the Government. There is 
a devotion to this cause in the Society of Friends that I do 
not find as marked in any other religious body, and this, 
with their large experience, gives them peculiar facilities in 
procuring and supervising conscientious agents. Such a 
plan, if practicable, would not interfere with the missionary 
operations of other religious bodies, and, indeed, some of 
them would prefer to confine themselves to their legitimate 
work, allowing the governmental or secular duties to de- 
volve on others better fitted for it. This, however, may be 
impracticable ; but there is a change in the conduct of the 
Indian Office that I think can be made advantageously. I 
understand that in the Treasury Department the entire 



12 



appropriation for Indian service is inelnded in one general 
Indian account, althongh Congress at much labor itemizes 
its appropriations. There is. therefore, no sufficient check 
upon the Indian Office, and upon examination it will, no 
doubt, be found that the directions of Congress are not 
always regarded. Thus, the §5,000 sp^nt for quack medi- 
cine was directed to be charged to an account that should 
have covered vaccine virus only. The sum of $710.31 
allowed to the clerk before referred to as car fare, at three 
times its actual cost, is endorsed as follows: "Approved; 
charge appropriation for incidental expenses, Indian service 
in Dakota. Edwin IV Smith. Commissioner." If the items 
in the appropriation bill are not to be regarded, the expendi- 
ture is at the discretion of the Interior Department, and it 
will be much more satisfactory hereafter to appropriate a 
specific sum. A retorm in legislation for Iudians was com- 
menced last year by preventing the use of appropriations in 
advance of the fiscal year, and by remanding the unexpended 
balance back into the Treasury. The absence of such a law 
has hitherto been a fruitful source of demoralization. 

The uniform courtesy with which I have been treated in 
the Interior Department makes this frank statement of 
wrongs a painful duty, and yet it is one that I could not 
resist, because impelled by pledges made time and again to 
Indians and to their best friends. I desire it to be under- 
stood that I fault no well-intentioned person because of im- 
proper appointments to office, but only when such officers 
are allowed to remain after their incompetency could and 
should be known. I have counted the cost of making this 
public statement, and, as in former instances, I am quite 
prepared for misunderstandings and misrepresentations from 
parties who seem to glory in wronging the Indian and the 
Government. The usual course with such persons is to 
charge the fearless friend of the Indian with personal vin- 
dictiveness. that his influence may thereby be decreased. 
Having now performed my duty as a private citizen, I am 
quite content to leave the work of reform in the hands of 



13 

one upon whom the responsibility has been placed by the 
people of this land. 

Yours, very respectfully, 

¥M. WELSH, 

1122 Spruce Street. 



LETTER FROM ATTORNEYS FOR THE PROSECU- 
TION. 



To the Hon. Nelson J. Turney, William R. Jennings, 
James Smith, Jr., and T. C. Jones, Commissioners ap- 
pointed to investigate charges made against Edward P. 
Smith, late Agent of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota: 

Gentlemen: — Since informing you that we should prepare 
and present charges and specifications against Edward P. 
Smith, touching his official action as Indian Agent in Min- 
nesota, we have received and examined various letters and 
documents which have been forwarded here by Mr. William 
Welsh, of the City of Philadelphia, for whom we appear as 
Attorneys, and have prepared such specifications as the in- 
formation laid before us would seem to justify ; but many 
of the charges can only be substantiated by the presence of 
witnesses who are scattered over, not only this State, but 
other States, and cannot be procured on the short notice 
given by you for the investigation. A number of parties 
have become interested in the Wilder, Merriam and Rust 
contracts, and the united influence of such interested par- 
ties is brought to bear to suppress the facts in connection 
with said contracts, and volunteer witnesses in support of 
the charges cannot be hoped for. There are many persons, 
as we have reason to believe, in this and other States, who 
could give material testimony, but who will not do so, 
unless compelled by legal process. 

From many prudential considerations they are unwilling 



14 



to come into collision with Commissioner Smith, the Indian 
Department, and those interested parties who wish to up- 
hold the contracts. We are informed also, that some im- 
portant papers in connection with this inquiry have dis- 
appeared from the Indian Bureau at Washington, since Mr. 
Smith became Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and that the 
facts relating to the matter can only be -shown by witnesses 
residing in the Eastern States. 

We have therefore been considering the authority by 
which you are appointed, and your powers to enforce the 
attendance of witnesses, to administer oaths, and compel the 
production of papers, &c, for without these powers the in- 
vestigation can result in little more than farce ; and we 
are surprised to find that you possess none of these very 
essential powers for this investigation. We find no authority 
for your appoiutment to investigate the conduct of Commis- 
sioner Smith, except the general power that any bureau 
officer may possess to order an informal inquiry into the con- 
duct of one of his subordinates. You have no power to 
subpoena a witness, or in any way compel his attendance, or 
compel the production of a paper, or to administer an oath, 
or compel a witness to testify if present, or, if testifying, to 
answer any question that he might not choose to answer. 
Under these circumstances, you can gain no information 
except such as is volunteered. Mr. Welsh has informed us, 
since your appointment, that Secretary Delano himself 
admits that you have not any of these powers. We must,, 
therefore, in view of the want of jurisdiction and the neces- 
sary powers on your part in the premises, respectfully decline 
to appear before you in the matter. 

We may further remark, that from copies of letters and 
papers before us, we are of opinion that a thorough investi- 
gation by a Commission clothed with these necessary 
powers, will reflect unfavorably upon the official conduct of 
Secretary Delano, from whom you hold your appointment. 

Certain it is, that nothing but a Commission authorized 
by law, and empowered to compel the attendance of wit- 



15 



nesses and the production of papers, giving ample notice of 
the time of their meeting, can bring out the truth, or a 
semblance of it, in connection with the management of 
Indian Affairs in this State and "Wisconsin, under Agent 
Smith. Before such a Commission we are at all times ready 
to appear, and prosecute our charges. 

Jno. M. Gilman, 
Geo. L. Otis, 
Attorneys for Wm. Welsh and Harlan P. Hall. 
St. Paul, Dec. 8th, 1873. 



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